English Composition in Elementary Schools. 



BY 
JAMES S. SNODDY, A^IVL, 

Teachcf of English in the State Normal School, 
VALLEY QTY, NORTH DAKOTA. 



Reprinted from Education, Boston, February and March, 1900. 



% 

/V 



-Xi 



#-^ 



ENGLISH COMPOSITION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



PROF. JAMES S. SNODDY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, VALLEY CITY, N. DAK. 



A 



BOY learns to plow by plowing ; he learns to write by 
^ 3. writing. Instead of having him memorize rules and defi- 
nitions with regard to writing we should let him learn their 
application by practice. The one aim of the teacher should be 
the rousing of the pupil's interest. This can be done only by 
finding some means of appealing to his personal experience. 

The first mean? to be employed in the teaching of composi- 
tion should be conversations with the children about things 
which they have seen or about incidents which they have ex- 
pevienced. The children should be encouraged to engage freely 
in these conversations— to tell about things they have seen, and 
to tell their experiences. The next step might be the telling 
and reading of stories. These stories should be made topics of 
conversations, and the pupils required to reproduce them in 
their own words as fully as possible. The stories may be taken 
from history, travels and biography ; but fables and fairy stories 
should not be neglected ; they are, in most instances, the best 
of all. The active imaginations of the children demand them. 
In addition to these fables and stories the beautiful myths of 
olden times can be made both profitable and interesting. 

While these various stories, fables and myths are being used 
as means for teaching the first steps in composition, selections 
from our best authors can be made to subserve the same pur- 
pose. There are scores and scores of little verses that could be 
used as memory gems and topics of conversation in the compo- 
sition work of the lower grades. Take, for example, the poem 

beginning with, 

" What does little birdie say 
In her nest at break of day?" 

by Alfred Tennyson ; 



or the poem beginning with, 

"We are the sweet flowers 
Born of sunny showers," 



by Leigh Hunt; 



or the one beginning with, 

"The cock is crowing. 
The stream is flowing. 
The small birds twitter, 
The lake doth glitter," 

by William Wordstvo7'th ; 

or the four lines found in Robert Browning's Piffa Passes, 

"The lark's on the wing ; 
The snail's on the thorn ; 
God's in his heaven, — 
All's right with the world !" 

or the little four-line poem entitled Rain, by Robert Louis 
Stevenson, '^^^ 

"The rain is rainfall around, 
It falls on field and tree. 
It rains on the umbrellas here 
And on the ships at sea." 

Similar extracts from our best writers might be put on the 
board, and each be allowed to remain several days for conven- 
ience in composition work. By and by more difficult passages 
might be interpreted and memorized ; for example, Coleridge's 

" He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God who loveth us. 
He made and loveth all." 

The committing to memory of such choice extracts not only 
serves little children in the lower grades as helps in the use of 
language and incidental training in oral composition, but stores 
their minds with that which will charm and interest them in 
later years. 

In addition to selections taken from standard literature there 
are many valuable collections, as Mother Goose Rhymes, 
Aunt Effie's Rhymes and Nursery Nonsense, that might be 
used as helps in teaching language in the kindergarten and 
primary grades. Scientists who have given special attention 
to child study, and those who have had experience in kinder- 



garten work, tell us that children have a keener appreciation of 
the grotesque than adults have ; but I question the propriety of 
giving little children such whimsical and incongruous rimes as, 

"Three children sliding on the ice 
Upon a summer's da}^ ; 
As it fell out, they all fell in, 
The rest, they ran away." 

The majority of these "Rhymes," however, should certainly 
have a prominent place in the kindergarten and primary grades ; 
but while there are so many excellent verses in our best litera- 
ture which are so well adapted to the needs of these grades it 
seems to be misused time to teach meaningless rimes such as 
the one just quoted. The watchword in the teaching of lan- 
guage in the lower grades should be. Give the children the best 
literature ; begin early, and give them as much as possible. 

One means by which composition writing in the intermediate 
grades may be made to appeal to the pupils' every-day experi- 
ences is to have them write letters to some of their friends and 
to allow them to send these letters through the mail. Exercises 
of this sort will bring this phase of composition writing into 
touch with real life. But in the composition work of the inter- 
mediate grades we should endeavor, as in the lower grades, to 
arrange our plans so as to keep the work in touch with good 
literature ; for literature, in its broad meaning, is life. In order 
to show the young pupils that literature is at least a part of life, 
let them use some of the selections which they have taken from 
literature for memory gems in their composition work in such 
a manner as to interweave their own experiences with them. 
Take, for example, those two dainty little poems written by 
Jane Taylor : one entitled The Poppy, — the proud flower that 
held up its 

"... staring head 
And thrust it full in view ;" 

the other, entitled The Violet, — the modest flower that grew 

" Down in a green and shady bed." 

Let them read and contrast the thoughts contained in these two 
poems, and then write a composition expressing their own 
thoughts and feelings in regard to pride and modesty as made 

3 



manifest in the characters of different people whom they have 
seen ; or, better, of different people about whom they have read. 
There are many other poems that could be used in the same 
way : Emerson's The Mountain and the Squirrel is full of sug- 
gestions that appeal to the country boys. So are many of Bry- 
ant's poems. Can it be possible that there is a country boy 
whose feelings do not respond to the thoughts expressed in the 
line, 
" They rustle to the eddying gust and to the rabbit's tread"? 

And, if given an opportunity, will he not write a composition 
expressing his feelings about the rabbit's tread among the rust- 
ling leaves? Longfellow, as well as Bryant, loved children, 
and wrote many of his poems expressly for them. For a long 
time he was called the " children's poet," both in America and 
in England. But the honor has been transferred ; it now be- 
longs to Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley. These two 
poets have brought to the child world a charm hitherto unknown. 
The greatest difficulty that teachers in the grades generally 
have in correlating literature with the composition work is the 
lack of materials in convenient form. But this difficulty is now 
being removed ; many of the language lesson books in current 
use contain gems of verse from Longfellow, Whittier, Bryant, 
Holmes, Alice and Phoebe Gary, Emerson, Lowell and others ;* 
and some of these books contain appropriate selections from 
good literary prose. Eliot's Poetry for Childrenf contains se- 
lections from Tennyson, Wordsworth, Mrs. Browning, Mrs. 
Hemans, Mary Howitt, Southey, Cowper, Campbell and other 
well-known writers of England. There are two other books 
which the teachers in the grades should have as reference 
books ::j: one is entitled, A Child's Garden of Verses, — a collec- 
tion of Robert Louis Stevenson's poems on childhood ; the 
other. The Eugene Field Book, — a collection of Field's poems, 
letters and stories. The Field book is especially attractive, and 
is admirably adapted for paraphrasing and other phases of com- 
position work in the intermediate grades. While such books 
as these can be obtained teachers need no longer complain of a 
lack of materials. 

*See Metcalf and Bright's Language Exercises. American Book Company, 
t Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
X Published by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



So far, in my treatment of elementary composition writing, I 
have tried to emphasize the importance of the correlation of good 
literature with the work, and have, consequently, given no at- 
tention to any special kind of composition. Besides letter writ- 
ing only two phases of the work have been touched upon ; 
namely, simple reproduction and paraphrasing. But reproduc- 
tion and paraphrasing, according to the classifications of the 
best authorities, are not included as rhetorical divisions of writ- 
ing. Since they are mostly imitations of other people's writ- 
ings, they cannot, in the full sense of the term, be regarded as 
real compositions. There are, strictly speaking, only four kinds 
of writing; namely, narration, description, exposition, argu- 
mentation. The including of persuasion as a separate kind, as 
is done by many authors of text-books, is obviously unneces- 
sary ; for persuasion is merely a quality of style which applies 
to a narrative, a description, an exposition or an argument.* 
Persuasion is, however, somewhat closer, in its application, to 
argumentation than to the other three kinds of writing ; for ar- 
gumentation appeals to the understanding, while persuasion ap- 
peals to the will or feelings. But since it so often happens that 
the assent of the understanding is gained by rousing the will or 
feelings to action the two kinds of writing are sometimes treated 
as one, — persuasion is regarded simply as a degree of argu- 
mentation. 

Regarding writing, then, as consisting of four kinds, we may 
arrange them in two groups : one, including narration and de- 
scription-; the other, exposition and argumentation. Th^ former 
group deals primarily with things; the latter with thoughts. 
Description tells what things are; narration what they do.-\ 
Exposition in dealing with thoughts analyzes and explains ; 
argumentation in dealing with thoughts convinces the under- 
standing. But when persuasion is resorted to, narration and 
description do more than deal with things, and exposition and 
argumentation do more than deal with thoughts ; they all appeal 
to the will or feelings. It is evident, then, that since exposition 
and argumentation deal primarily with abstractions they can 

* For a full discussion of the classification of the kinds of writing see Arlo Bates' Talks on 
Writing English, p. 123 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), and A. H. Hill's Principles of Rhetoric, p. 
246 (Harper & Brothers). 

t See Flether & Carpenter's Introduction to Theme-writing, p. 3. (Allyn & Bacon.) 



be used very little in the teaching of composition in the elemen- 
tary schools. If any application of them should be made at all, 
only the simplest principles of either should be used ; and these 
principles will naturally apply, in most instances, incidentally, 
in connection with narration and description. So the main bulk 
of elementary composition work must necessarily be limited to 
these two kinds of writing. 

Narration. — Since narration and description deal primarily 
with things, it makes little difference which has precedence in 
the elementary work ; or whether they be taught, at first, com- 
bined, or as separate kinds of writing. In most instances they 
will be found combined. Let us suppose, however, the first 
assignment to be a topic in which the narrative is to be the most 
prominent feature. If the assignment be made in the lower 
grades, all that can be expected is a simple reproduction or a 
story told in the child's own way, — first, oral; then, written. 
If the assignment be made in the intermediate grades, an in- 
formal outline might be advantageously used. If the assign- 
ment be made in the higher grades, the outline should be some- 
what formal ; and as the work progresses it should be made 
more and more formal. To illustrate : suppose that the topic 
decided upon be Our Nutting Excursion ; an informal out- 
line appropriate for the intermediate grade work would be about 
as follows : Saturday — autumn — our class and a few friends — 
wagon — dinner — storm — return home. 

In the higher grades a more formal outline might be used ; 
example : — 

1. When and where we were when we started on our excur- 

sion, and who were in our party. 

2. Our preparations for starting. 

3. Incidents that happened on the way. 

4. Our arrival at the grove. 

5. Trees, squirrels, birds, flowers. 

6. Return home. 

Or one more formal, like the following : — 

I. Introduction : — 
I. When — where — who. 
II. The body of the Composition; — 

I. Incidents in the forenoon. What happened on the way. 
— other incidents. 



2. Noon-time. Lunch — incidents at the time. 

3. The forests, flowers, etc. Their appearance (inci- 
dental description). 

4. Some of the characteristics of the nuts that grow in our 
forests. Their uses, etc. (incidental exposition). 

5. Why some of our nut-bearing trees are better than those 
that grow in other countries (incidental argumentation). 

6. Other incidents. 

III. Conclusion : The day a pleasant and profitable one. 
Some proverb or quotation from poetry appropriate for 
a closing. 

The first step to be taken in the writing of any composition 
is, of course, the gathering together of materials. In the 
secondary schools, colleges and universities this is done largely 
by means of research work in libraries ; but in the elementary 
schools, from the lowest to the highest grades, it must be done 
almost entirely by means of conversations — oral work in the 
class room. But after the collection of the necessary materials 
shall have been completed some sort of definite plan should be 
made. This is one of the most important features in the writ- 
ing of compositions.* It is, in fact, a natural principle which 
is made manifest in nearly every phase of life : The little bird 
hopping from limb to limb is selecting with care its materials, 
and already has a definite design of a home for its fond nest- 
lings. Call this instinct, if you will ; but is it not about the 
same as the planning, the designing, the outlining of the archi- 
tect who devises the plans for the construction of buildings? 
The savage in the wild forest, while constructing his hut or 
shaping his arrowhead, has a definite plan in view. The little 
child at its play manifests the same principle when it constructs 
its little toy house in accordance with some model which is fur- 
nished by its memory or imagination. This, then, is nature's 
method, and should be used in the schoolroom. But the pupils 
in following ^ny prescribed plan should be allowed the utmost 
freedom. The outlines made for the lower and intermediate 
grades should be as informal as possible ; they should be out- 
lines of the pupils' own making — simply the putting together, 
in accordance with their own plans, the materials furnished 

* Read the chapter on Outlining Compositions in Spalding's The Problem of Elementary 
Composition, p. 76, ft'. (D. C. Heath & Co.) 



through their own answers to the teacher's questions. But as 
the pupils become more mature ; as they acquire more breadth 
of thought and power of execution ; as they begin to under- 
stand the construction of compound and complex sentences and 
the grouping of sentences in paragraphs ; as they begin to ap- 
preciate some of the simple elements of style, — then the follow- 
ing of formal outlines should be insisted upon. Just in what 
grade this should begin it is difficult to sa}^. The development 
of the pupil's mind in passing from any grade to the next 
higher is not a sudden transition ; it is a continuous growth. 
Probably the average class of pupils will be most benefited by 
formal outlines in the last two years of the elementary school 
work. 

Returning now to our topic which has been selected for an 
assignment as a narrative theme, Our Nutting Excursion, 
let us decide upon the next step to be taken. The pupils 
should be requested to use the outline which has been sug- 
gested as a guide while writing their compositions. But the 
topic assigned may not apply to the personal experiences of 
some of the pupils ; many of them probably have not been on 
a nutting excursion. Let such pupils select another topic 
similar to this one ; for example, Our Hunting Party, or 
My Last Picnic. The outline suggested will serve as a model 
which they may use in making their own outlines. At the next 
meeting of the class all pupils should be asked to prepare their 
pencils and paper for taking notes. Some member of the class 
should then be called upon to read his composition. He will 
probably reply that he has not finished it. Let him read what 
he has. He will doubtless have mistakes ; but the pointing out 
of these mistakes at first will, in most instances, kill the spirit 
of the work. It would be better to call on the other pupils to 
point out their favorite passages which have been read, and then 
to ask them to give reasons why they like such passages. 
Some passages that have been read may call to mind an inci- 
dent which some pupil has enjoyed, or possibly some bit of lit- 
erature which he has read. Composition work will at once 
begin to be appreciated and enjoyed, and regarded as some- 
thing alive — something with which the pupils are in sympathy 
— something they can call their own. After the pupils shall 

8 



have discussed all the excellent passages that they are able to 
point out in the composition^ that has been read the teacher 
should praise it. "Good "work," says Professor Salmon, 
" should be commended without stint; bad work should never 
be ridiculed."* When a pupil does his best the teacher should 
call his work excellent, and grade it accordingly. 

Every pupil should be given an opportunity to read his 
composition, and to have the best features of his efforts 
pointed out. It may take up several full periods of the class 
work for all to read ; but the reading should be kept up as long 
as there is any general interest made manifest by the members 
of the class. All should then be required to copy their compo- 
sitions with ink on heavy ruled paper, using only one side. 
The teacher, in reading the compositions, should make very 
few corrections. In most instances a mark, made with a blue 
pencil, indicating the mistakes, will be all that is necessary. 
The best results will generally be attained by the teacher's 
simply pointing out the mistakes and letting the pupils make 
their own corrections. Let them do the work. In no other 
way can they accomplish anything in composition writing. 
They learn to zvrite by zur/'ting. 

Before the compositions are returned, one or more regular 
class periods might be spent in talking about them. The 
teacher might call attention to mistakes that have been made 
by the members of the class without mentioning their names, 
tell how these mistakes should be corrected, and make further 
suggestions with regard to form ; for example, capitalization, 
punctuation and paragraphing. But these, it must be remem- 
bered, are only the. external features of the work in hand. 
Suggestions with regard to form in writing, however important 
they may be, appeal to a majority of the young pupils as noth- 
ing but dry-as-dust rules. Such suggestions or rules should, 
unquestionably, be given whenever occasion demands their 
application ; but can we not, at the same time, give them 
suggestions that appeal more directly to their tastes, to their 
desires, — something in which they are directly interested? 
Many of the pupils in writing these simple accounts of their 
own experiences may have used, unconsciously perhaps, ele- 

* The Art of Teaching, by D. S. Salmon, p. 1S5. Longmans, Green & Co. 

9 



ments of narration which the great story writers use; namely, 
association^ environment , suspense, surprise, suggestion, move- 
ment, climax. These and many other fundamental elements 
may be found in narrative compositions written by young pupils. 
True, their efforts may be crude, but all such efforts should be 
praised. Point out the passages where any of these elements 
have been used ; then turn to literature and read passages in 
which the great story-writers have used the same elements. 
The opening paragraph of Dr. Brown's Rab and His Frie^ids 
affords an excellent illustration oi association and envirotiment ; 
or what we might appropriately call the setting or situation — 
the time ?i.r\d place of the action. In other words, this writer, 
in the introduction to his story, has answered in a succinct way 
not only the questions zvken and zvhere, but also the question 
who; the zvJiat and the tuhy he answers in the development of 
t\veplot and ih^ purpose o{ his story. Irving's Legend of Sleepy 
Hollow and Hawthorne's Great Stone Face afford illustrations 
of the other elements to which reference has just been made, 
besides furnishing illustrations of other additional principles ; 
namely, unity, coherence, characterization, subordination. 
Verily, there is no end to the variety of interest that can be 
aroused in the teaching of elementary narrative composition. 
Description. — Since young children are naturally fond of 
stories, it is maintained by many that there should be very 
little, if any, descriptive writing in the lower grades. Not so ; 
children can describe as well as they can narrate. In their 
oral work, probably the best results will, in most instances, be 
attained through narration, but in their written work it will 
oftentimes be more pedagogical to begin with description. Oral 
composition appeals almost entirely to the ear ; but the first 
steps in written composition must necessarily appeal primarily 
to the eye. By means of books that contain colored pictures, 
little children in the primary grades can be taught to appreciate 
form and color.* In connection with the colored pictures of 
flowers in these books, little poems in which the flowers are 
mentioned might be used as memory gems, or as bases for sim- 
ple reproduction. The poets tell about flowers, — their forms, 

*SeeThe Baldwin Primer and Crosby's Little Book for Little Folks (American Book Co ), 
The Finch Primer (Ginn & Co.), Bass's Lessons for Beginners in Reading (D. C. Heath & Co.)^ 
The Werner Primer (Werner School Book Co.). 



odors, colors; why cannot children, too, be allowed to tell 
about them? Are not children word-painters* in the same 
sense of the term that poets are? Do they not tell about things 
— what they are — oftentimes with surprising originality? Then, 
too, how easy it will be, while teaching this kind of writing in 
the lower grades, to keep the work in touch with literature I 
In their reading lessons and memory gems the children's atten- 
tion might be called to passages that portray pictures by means 
of words. Could a child read or recite Robert Burns's 

" Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower" 

without seeing in his mind's eye a picture of the daisy? or 
Goldsmith's oft-quoted line, 

'' Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn," 

without seeing a mental picture of the primrose ; or, perchance, 
some other flower with which he is more familiar and which 
he has already personified and recognized as his companion? 
Children not describe what they feel ! Give them an oppor- 
tunity ; they will describe as well as narrate. 

Pupils in high schools oftentimes prefer descriptive writing to 
narrative. The reason for this is probably because the variety 
of interest in descriptive writing is more obvious. If, then, de- 
scription is more interesting to the little folk in the lower 
grades, and is the choice of many pupils in the secondary 
schools, why can it not be made attractive in the intermediate 
and higher grades of the elementary schools? There are many 
ways in which this can be done. Some topic that appeals to 
the personal experience of the pupils might be assigned. Take, 
for example. My Morning Walk. After a formal outline shall 
have been made, and the pupils shall have prepared the first 
draft of their compositions, they should be asked to take their 

*The term "word-painter," according' to certain authorities, is a misnomer. See Baldwin's 
Specimens of Prose Description, pp. x, xi (Henry Holt & Co.), and Arlo Bates' Talks on Writ- 
ing English, p. 1S3 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). But while it is true that words cannot really paint, 
and that all that the writer can do with words is to bring before the mind of the reader certain 
images of things which the latter has seen, it must be admitted that the image presented by 
means of descriptive writing is much broader in its application than the one presented by means 
of painting. The painter is limited to form and color; while the writer in making his appeal 
to the reader has at his command color, form, sound, odor, and motion. Since there is no satis- 
factory term, or definition sufficiently simple and clear, to convey to pupils in the lower grades, 
the idea of the image presented in descriptive writing, probably the best term that can be used 
is word -painting " or " word-picturing." Either of them implies that description is a portrayal 
by means of language, and will serve as a sort of working definition. 

II 



pencils and paper and to jot down all the elements of nature 
referred to in the compositions while they are being read. If 
the five elements of nature which are used in descriptive writ- 
ing, namely, motion, sound, color, form, odor, be written on 
the board, the young writers will at once manifest interest; for 
they will be pleased to find that they have used many of them 
in their compositions. They should now be permitted to point 
out their favorite passages in which these elements are referred 
to. Suppose that several members of the class should note 
that the pupil who had just read his composition, in describing 
what he saw in his morning walk, had mentioned motion a 
number of times ; for example, suppose one of the passages to 
be, The gopher seeing us sped like an arrozu to its hole; or 
probably a passage like this, The little prairie jio-Lvers as they 
were blown by the gentle wi^td see?ned to he dancing /or Joy. 
Ask these young critics which of these passages is their choice ; 
and then ask them to tell why they like it. Many of them will 
prefer the sentence in which the dancing flower is mentioned. 
While the interest is aroused, an opportunity will be open for 
beginning the teaching of the figures of speech ; not by mem- 
orizing text-book rules, but in a live way. The flower that 
danced for joy can easily be made an interesting topic for class 
discussion. If the pupils are permitted to express themselves 
on this topic, the flower to them will soon become a personality 
— a companion. There will be no need of a formal definition 
for personification; the name of the figure of speech is all that 
is necessary ; they already know its application — they feel its 
application ; all they need is a word by means of which they 
can express their thoughts and feelings. But some pupil may 
say that he prefers the passage in which a reference is made to 
the gopher's speeding like an arrow. Give him an opportunity 
to tell why he likes it. He will doubtless not be able to give a 
strictly formal definition for simile ; he will probably say that 
he has often shot arrows from his bow, and knows something 
about the rapidity with which they speed. That is definition 
enough ; he understands the application of this figure of speech. 
This is all that is necessary. Without wasting time in memo- 
rizing definitions in regard to figures of speech, the pupils can 
learn, in connection with their composition work, the uses, not 



only of personification and simile, but of nearly all the figures 
of speech before they are ready to enter upon their high-school 
work. 

Special exercises might be given from time to time on figures 
of speech in connection with their reading or literature lessons, 
which will, in due time, serve as material for composition writ- 
ing. For this purpose such selections should be culled from 
literature as will appeal to the personal experiences of the pupils. 
Many a boy will be delighted to find himself portrayed in the 
figures of speech used by Whittier in his hi School Days or The 
Barefoot Boy, or in many of Longfellow's, Field's or Riley's 
poems ; and some country boy will be still more delighted to 
find in Tennyson's The Brook the following stanza, — 

" I chatter over stony ways, 
In little sharps and trebles ; 
I bubble into eddying bays, 
I babble on the pebbles," — 

a personification which recalls the boy's own childhood days 
when he spent so many happy hours wading barefoot over peb- 
oles in some brook near his country home. 

Come back now to our topic. My Morning Walk. While 
one of the pupils is reading his composition, other pupils may 
call attention to the fact that sound is referred to a number of 
times. This element, in its turn, will become an interesting 
topic for conversation and friendly criticism. Many questions 
might arise with regard to the nature of the sounds referred to 
in the composition; for example, were they harsh sounds? or 
were they soft sounds? or melodious sounds? Many of the 
girls who have had practice in music will have answers ready. 
Questions then might arise with regard to the sources of the 
sounds referred to : were they artificial or natural sounds? Were 
they caused through the agency of man, or did they arise direct 
from nature? 

In connection with this feature of the work literature might 
again be drawn upon. The passages in literature in which 
onomatopoetic eflTect is clearly marked will be especially inter- 
esting and useful. Bryant's poetry affords an abundance of 
material of this character. His " Robert of Lincoln," with his 
" spink, spank, spink " and " chee, chee, chee," is a picture 

13 



presented by means of words that represent sound. Poe's The 
Bells is another good example ; here the silver, the golden, the 
brazen, the iron bells, in their tinkling, chiming, clanging and 
tolling, present a series of pictures.* 

While frequent references to motion, sound, form and odor 
may be found in elementary descriptive compositions, there will 
generally be more references to color. Let the pupils point out 
the passages in which this element is referred to and decide 
which are the most appropriate. There will be no need of tell- 
ing them that the passages which contain references to delicate 
tints of colors are the best. They will find it out themselves. 
Many of them, in fact, already know it; they have known it, 
or rather have felt it, ever since they were little children. This 
may, however, be their first conscious realization of , their pos- 
session of this knowledge. They begin to see themselves in 
their own writings. What a delight to them this realization 
must be ! An opportunity is now open for giving the pupils a 
few glimpses of the world of beauty that lies be3'0nd — that is 
still ahead of them in their composition work in higher schools 
and in the active duties of life. They should be told that our 
best word-painters, — the great novelists and poets — in making 
use of the element, color, as a means by which they express 
their thoughts and feelings, often use words and phrases that 
simply suggest colors. Keats's poetry will furnish appropriate 
illustrations ; for this great poet in presenting some of his best 
pictures by means of words and phrases that represent colors 
does not, in every instance, mention red, orange, yellow, or 
any of the so-called prismatic colors. Tell them that not only 
Keats, but many other great writers, when portraying the green 
beauty of the primeval forests, the beautiful blue of the sky and 
the sea, and the cloud-reflecting lakes, oftentimes use only hints 
of colors. Read them passages from Shelley and Bryant to 
show how they, by means of this indirect process, present the 
many-colored beauty of their sunset skies ; or passages from 
Tennyson that contain word-pictures of the early morning 
sky; as, 

" Morn in the white wake of the morning-star 
Came furrowing all the orient into gold." 

* Read A. II. Tolman's article, The Expressive Po-.ver of English Sounds, Atlantic Monthly, 
April, 1895. 



Browning also has many beautiful passages that depict sunrise ; 
but in this respect Lanier surpassed them all. 

This suggestive or indirect process of portraying pictures by 
means of words may appropriately be called the kindling hint 
process. In portraying such pictures the writer does not really 
describe ; he simply gives a hint— some type or characteristic by 
means of which we are enabled to see the complete picture. 
He appeals to our imaginations; his picture kindles— grows 
upon us. This is art. But when a writer describes by giving 
all the details, he does not write the best literature ; he simply 
gives information. In order to illustrate this to young pupils 
read to them a newspaper description of a thief or criminal who 
has made his escape, and contrast it with some familiar piece of 
literature ; for example, Longfellow's picture of the scenery sur- 
rounding the little village in Acadia, where the distances are 
not given in miles, or the size of the fields in acres ; we are 
simply told that there were " vast meadows," and " flocks with- 
out number." So Wordsworth, in presenting his picture of the 
" host of golden daffodils" which he saw 

" Beside the lake, beneath the trees. 
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze," 

does not attempt to give an exact description* of the flower, — 
its form, its size, the number of its petals and stamens — or any 
other of its special characteristics, but by means of such general 
words as "golden," referring to color, and "fluttering" and 
" dancing," referring to motion, he makes us feel its beauty. 

Now, some may say that young pupils in the grades are not 
sufficiently advanced in aesthetic culture to be able to appreciate 
the poetical meanings that are implied in the kindling hint 
process, or even those that are expressed by means of figures 
of speech, or by means of the five elements of nature found in 
descriptive writings. But a casual glance through a set of com- 
positions written by any average class in the higher grades of the 
elementary schools will reveal the fact that these young people 
not only appreciate and enjoy reading such passages in litera- 
ture, but in their attempts at descriptive writing actually use all 
these devices ; then, too, they oftentimes do more — they present 
the subjective as well as the objective side of the pictures that 
they portray. 

15 



Here are two extracts taken from compositions written by 
seventh-grade pupils. Note the natural way in which a figure 
of speech is used, and the appropriate references to three of the 
elements of nature : — 

" I always feel sad when I walk over the crisp, dead leaves 
and listen to their rustling." 

" Our prairies, with their long grass turned all to somber 
brown, look desolate until the snow comes and lays a white 
mantle over everything." 

Here are examples of personification taken from a set of 
compositions written by pupils who have had a little more 
practice : — 

"The willows growing in bunches near the water looked as 
if they were standing guard over their more delicate friends, the 
flowers." 

" . . . In whose crystal waters the lilies bathed their slender 
fingers, and timid crocuses peeped up from the grasses that 
grew beside it." 

But here is a passage taken from the same set of compositions 
in which a kindling hint picture is presented : — 

"Wild flowers and grass grew on the roof and wall." 

The picture here presented is more than an external view of 
the flowers, the grass, the roof and the walls ; these are only 
hints — the mere outline of the complete picture that grows on 
our imaginations. The time element comes into our minds as 
we read, and with it associations that cause us to see the subjec- 
tive as well as the objective side of the picture. 

These are only a few of the means by which work in descrip- 
tive writing can be made interesting to young people. Indeed, 
there seems to be about as great a variety of interest in descrip- 
tion as in narration. How much better, then, it would be if the 
teachers in the elementary schools, instead of having the pupils 
waste time in memorizing the senseless rules and endless details 
of the so-called English grammars, would give them an oppor- 
tunity to learn to write by writing, — in other words, to learn 
English by using English. 



i6 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Hi 



021 729 202 5 






